The Patrick Larkin
Memorial Tournament will be will be held in Killimor on Saturday next, 27th July
at 3:30 pm. This tournament was part of the Week of Welcomes organised by Ireland
Reaching Out last year. A hurling contest between Killimor and Kiltormer will be
a 'Gathering Event' for the wider community this year. The format is the old
style sports day with two intervals. During the first interval there will be
underage hurling and camogie matches. The Lift and Strike competition during the
second interval will be open to everyone who wishes to enter. Competitions will
be divided into U16 and Others. Come along and give it a go!

The event last
year was much appreciated by visitors from overseas, seeking their roots in
East Galway. It is hoped that next Saturday's event will again be a focus for
the Diaspora, in search of their Irish ancestors.

Patrick Larkin was
a hurler in the first all Ireland, secretary and president in the early years of
Galway GAA, active in the land war of the 1880s, a public official and is
associated with the Killimor Rules for the hurling.

As part of a week of welcomes organised by the
South-East Galway Chapter of Ireland Reaching Out, a hurling match was
played in Killimor on Saturday 30/6/2012.
This wass considered an opportune occasion to remember our famous clansman,
Patrick Larkin (1866 to 1917). As a teenager Patrick Larkin scored the winning point for Killimor in a disputed
hurling match against a Dublin team, led by the visionary Michael Cusack, who
funded the GAA later that same year of 1884. Though the rules had been agreed
beforehand between the captains, and Lynch's Killimor were declared winners,
Cusack's negative comments, as match reporter for the Dublin dailies, was to
alienate the East Galway men from the soon to be founded national organisation.
As a result the Killimor Rules also known as Larkin's Rules were restated
following a meeting of the Killimor Hurling club in February 1885, almost a year
after the disputed match on the Fair Green in Ballinasloe.
Patrick Larkin went on to become a hurler in the first All-Ireland played under
GAA rules, was an official in the first County committee of Galway GAA and
continued as President until his immigration as a young married man in the
late1892. He had been identified with the physical force men of the oath-bound
IRB, and was imprisoned for his agrarian activities. After a decade in the US,
the family returned to set up a home and business in Kiltormer and, Patrick
Larkin resumed his association with the GAA and the struggle against
landlordism, while also serving as a public official.